Stone Point Capital, a financial services-focused private equity firm, announced the start of the investment period for its sixth private equity fund, Trident VI, with total capital commitments of $4.5 billion.

Trident VI is the successor to Trident V, a $3.6 billion private equity fund formed in 2010, according to the Greenwich firm.

Stone Point held the final closing of Trident VI earlier this year with strong support from existing investors and first-time commitments from a number of leading institutional investors.

"We are pleased to announce the start of the investment period of Trident VI," CEO Chuck Davis said in a statement. "Trident VI will continue the proactive investment sourcing strategy that the Trident Funds have executed and developed over many years. We believe our team's industry expertise and relationships will provide a strong competitive advantage as we work to identify investments in the financial services industry and enhance the value of our portfolio companies."

"We believe that our focus on the financial services sector, our long-term track record and our flexible and entrepreneurial investment approach position Stone Point Capital to attract talented management teams and to work in active partnership with them to create value for our investors," Jim Carey, a senior principal, said in the statement.

Stone Point has raised six private equity funds -- the Trident Funds -- with aggregate committed capital of about $13 billion. In addition to the capital invested by the Trident Funds, the firm has secured about $7 billion of equity co-investments since 2001.